Given

by Jeanie Tomasko

For Jon

Now is a worn street on the east

side of town, now is

its sidewalk, its cracks

its dogs and women walking. Now is

its talking yard to yard, its front

porches, yawn-faced cats.

Now is a day of luscious light,

the Sunday night of it,

fifth day into summer,

the fried-chicken-potato-salad of it,

the friends, the table’s easy

laughter. Now is how

a body returns from darkness, how

a heart, how a thought,

now is how to say given.

And this, the simplest grace: a wood floor

shining with given, the garden

gate, repaired.

Every blade of grass is green with it.

Now is a plate heaped high

with it, and now,

now is the whole blue onrushing world.

~ first published in The Midwest Quarterly